J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci 1991; 3:383-386
Copyright © 1991 by American Neuropsychiatric Association
The nucleus basalis of Meynert, senile plaques, and intellectual impairment in schizophrenia
RS el-Mallakh, DG Kirch, R Shelton, KJ Fan, G Pezeshkpour, S Kanhouwa, RJ Wyatt and JE Kleinman
Neuropsychiatry Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, Rockville, Maryland 20857.
The large, hyperchromic, cholinergic neurons of the nucleus basalis of
Meynert (nbM) and the presence of senile plaques were quantified in
postmortem brain tissue from 10 intellectually impaired schizophrenic
patients, seven intellectually intact schizophrenic patients, seven control
subjects, and three patients with Alzheimer's disease. The two groups of
schizophrenic patients did not show any significant differences when
compared with the control group in nbM cell density or in plaque frequency.
The Alzheimer's disease patients showed the expected decrease in nbM
neuronal density and increase in plaques compared with the controls. The
data suggest that compromised cognitive function in schizophrenia is not
associated with diffuse neuropathology of the basal forebrain cholinergic
system.
